By Chris OrletRecord Managing EditorIt is Sunday afternoon at Holy Rosary Church and some 120 Latinos, the vast majority of them children, have crowded into the church for the 1:30 p.m. Spanish-language Mass.Celebrating the Mass is Fr. Brian Harrison. An Oblate priest, who has pastoral care of the Latino community of Holy Rosary Parish, Fr. Harrison is fluent in Spanish having spent much of his life in Puerto Rico.Among Fr. Harrison’s duties are administering to the spiritual needs of his Hispanic parishioners, Saying mass, and performing weddings and baptisms. His young parishioners, however, many new immigrants who work low-wage jobs at Mexican restaurants in Wright City and elsewhere, have earthly needs too.“We respond to whatever needs they bring to us,” Fr. Harrison says in a mild Australian accent. “A lot of them are trying to get their citizenship papers on track or need letters attesting to their good character. We try to help connect them to health care services too.”So far the ministry has seen mixed results. The church has tried to initiate English language courses, but there were no takers, Fr. Harrison said. And there are few Latino kids in the parish school, even though the parish has offered substantial discounts to low-income Latinos. “We tried to awaken interest in it, but if they have to pay something extra they are not interested,” says Fr. Harrison.The number of Latinos who attend Mass at Holy Rosary is just a drop in the bucket compared to the diocese’ overall Latino population. There are an estimated 36,400 Latino Catholics in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, according to the Office of Hispanic Ministry.Fr. Harrison says one big challenge is trying to reach out to those Latinos in the community who do not regularly attend Mass. “They are like everyone else,” he says. “They suffer the religious indifference of a secular society.”Javier Orozco, director of the St. Louis Archdiocese’ Office of Hispanic Ministry, said the goal of the ministry is to reach out to Catholics of all cultures, and see that they become part of the church. “This takes the generosity and kindness of all the people,” he said. “This has always been the case of the people at Holy Rosary.”Holy Rosary is just one of several parishes in the archdiocese with an Hispanic ministry. Others include Immaculate Conception in Arnold, Holy Trinity in St. Ann, Our Lady of Guadalupe in Ferguson, Sacred Heart in Troy, St. Cecilia in south St. Louis, St. Charles Borromeo in St. Charles, St. Joseph in Farmington, St. Joseph in Manchester and St. Patrick in Wentzville.With 130 parishioners, Holy Rosary has the largest Latino congregation in the western St. Louis Diocese. Talks are already under way of alternating Sunday Masses between parishes in Warrenton, Troy and Wentzville.

Chris Orlet Photo REACHING OUT TO HISPANICS — Fr. Brian Harrison baptizes to new parishoners to Holy Rosary Parish Sunday afternoon during the Spanish-language mass. The mass is part of Holy Rosary's Hispanic ministry which seeks to build connections between Anglo Catholics and younger, newer Hispanics.